In this brief review Parables without Purpose, James Christopher reviews the National Theatre Studio/Indosa's staging of Gita Mehta's A River Sutra and finds that this production fails to express the wealth of religious diversity, which the novel so wonderfully captured.

You can't miss the sense of event that hovers like joss-stick incense over the National Theatre Studio/ Indosa staging of Gita Mehta's A River Sutra. The venue is largely to blame. Finding this strange 18thcentury warehouse on an island in the East End proves as much a pilgrimage as the Narmada River is to the characters of Mehta's novel.

Rosa Maggiora's 90ft set taps superbly into the atmospherics. A river of lights sparkles against the brickwork. A rocky bank, framed on either side by a guesthouse and a temple, dominates the space. The audience are scattered on cushions; a lucky few hog benches at the back...